This box is not for someone who merely wants avocados to mash up as a base for guacamole. No, no, no. This box is for the adventurer.
Inside you’ll find avocados of different shapes and sizes, you’ll find avocados that originated on different continents, and you may experience flavors you’ve never imagined in an avocado before.
Ten varieties. Yes, I’ve got ten varieties here for you! It’s the mega mixed box: Jan Boyce, Sharwil, Edranol, Tami, Ben, Pinkerton, Hass, 29, 30, and 31.
(Order page here.) (I’m sorry but these have sold out.)
Hass is your control for this avocado experiment. You may have also eaten Pinkerton before, but some of the others are so rare that they don’t even have names yet (only testing numbers). And some are considered the best of all time by avocado connoisseurs (Sharwil and Jan Boyce).
Where do the avocados come from?
Oh, but that diversity is not enough. These avocados come from farms up and down the state. The Jan Boyce come from Bobcat Ridge Avocado Farm up north, in the foothills of the mountains overlooking Monterey Bay, while most of the other varieties come from down south at Eli’s Farms in Fallbrook, and the Pinkerton, Hass, and some Edranol come from my personal trees in San Diego County.
I must add that all of these avocados were grown using a similar philosophy of enhancing fertility of the soil under the trees with natural products like wood chips and manures rather than synthetic chemicals. Likewise, weeds in our groves are managed mechanically (mowers and string trimmers), and our trees are never sprayed with pesticides. You can be sure that these avocados are nutritious and clean, far beyond the standards for organic certification.
But I’ve overdone it with this avocado adventure box in a couple ways. One, there are so many varieties, some of which are large in size, that I can’t promise to fit every one in every box even though I’ll try. So if there’s a variety from the list that you definitely want to taste, please say so in the order notes.
Two, driving over a thousand miles (no exaggeration) to put this box together for you requires me to charge a bit more than for regular boxes. My inclination is to apologize for the higher price. However, I’m going to go in the opposite direction and say that if the price makes you hesitate, please just pass on this box. I take no offense. It is worth twice as much to some others and they will appreciate your leaving a box available for them.
I will mark each variety in the box so that you know which is which.
The order page is here, if you dare!
Feedback
Here are some impressions I’ve received about the avocados in the Adventure boxes:
“We have tried one of the JB – Jan Boyce avocados and it is fantastic. . . creamy and with a rich taste, a hint of nutty taste similar to a walnut? A+ !!”
“I loved the JB flavor, and the small size. Not crazy about the thin skin, but I may plant a 3rd tree, and I’ll still consider it.”
“Sharwil, 30 and 31 had good flavors . . . better than 29 IMO.”
“My Tami avocado was ripe today. It was delicious! I thought the seed might be large; so, I was happy to find that it was medium size.”
Very excited to try these exciting varieties! (btw do you have an Instagram account?)
Hi Mariangela,
I’m excited for you to try them! I get way too passionate about these avocado harvests!
I don’t have an Instagram account, sorry.
The order page says out of stock? Did they sell out that fast? Gotta act quick 🙂
/Dave
Yes, it’s true. Sorry, Dave. I harvested as much as I possibly could.
You’ve inspired me to send avos to dear friends out of state where they can’t get home grown., THX. During the coming year could you write a bit about the Anaheim variety, not much out there about it, thanks for all you are doing!
That’s great you’re doing that, Frank. Yes, I’ll try to post something about Anaheim this year. It’s been a long time since I ate Anaheims, but the fruit is big while the tree is small and productive. And the leaves have very wavy margins sometimes.
Hi Greg. can you share where you bought the compost? I need to do the same with my yard.
Tom McDougall
Hi Tom,
The compost came from IPRR in Lakeside, San Diego County. It’s my first time using their compost but it looks, feels, and smells right, their prices were reasonable, and they were very easy to work with. Here is their website: https://iprrgreen.com/
I know other home gardeners and farmers who really like the compost they get from AgriService (El Corazon) in Oceanside (if that’s closer to you): https://agriserviceinc.com/
thanks Greg: one more ? what do you like most about your comopost?
tom
My homemade compost? I like that I know the ingredients. I don’t have to wonder about residues from herbicides, plastics, etc. And I like that I understand how to work with it since I’ve been making it the same way for so long. I know that it works great for growing vegetable seedlings or fruit tree saplings or as an addition to vegetable beds.
We just received our box and can’t wait to try all these great varieties! I’m especially curious about the Jan Boyce since we picked up a baby tree today. In fact, in addition to the usual suspects, the nursery (Planting Justice in Oakland) had a ton of varieties I’ve never seen elsewhere: Song, Scha Hauer, Long South Late, Queen, Duke 7, Aravaipa, Palo de Oro, Ganter, Seminary, etc. Are you familiar with any of those? It’s so hard to decide what deserves a spot in our little orchard!
Hi Melina,
I know some of those varieties, but I’ve never heard of Song, Scha Hauer, Long South Late, or Seminary.
Of the others, I would only recommend planting Palo de Oro unless you have space for a collection or your yard is extremely cold in winter.
talking about compost .. sometimes I just dumped kichen waste (mostly fruit and vegetable waste) at the base of the tree. I removed the mulch first, dumped the waste, and covered the waste with mulch again. II’ve been doing that for a year now. What do you think of this method Greg?
Hi James,
I think that’s a good idea. I used to do it often but only don’t now because my chickens want to eat that stuff. I would say that the only downside is that dogs or raccoons or other animals sometimes smell it and dig it up.
Hi Greg. I follow you on YouTube and recently came across your website/blog. I missed out on your Avocado Adventure box. Argh.
I live in a condo in Los Angeles. I see on IG that people can grow avocados on their small patios. What are your thoughts on that? What variety do you recommend? I heard Holiday, Little Cado, and Gem are an option.
We enjoy your posts.
Hi Greg,
My Tami avocado was ripe today. It was delicious! I thought the seed might be large; so, I was happy to find that it was medium size. Did the Tami come from your orchard?
Best Regards to you.
Hi Olivia,
Tami came from Eli’s Farm in Fallbrook. Glad you liked it!
Hi Greg – this was a flavor adventure, especially for a novice avocado appreciator! Here are the notes I made about this box:
Sharwil/Kona Sharwil – delicious! This was the first one we tried. Abundant!
Pinkerton – great shape and good taste – have eaten them before and very enjoyable
Jan Boyce – nice and buttery!
Hass – very classic avocado flavor
Tami – found that it had a red-tinged skin – is that correct? loved how large it was Ironically I don’t remember eating any avocados when we were in Israel and we even stayed at an organic farm but I was kind of pomegranate obsessed on that trip 😉
Ben – really good (
29 – creamy but not my favorite – it was darker inside
30 – outside became very dark but it was nice and green inside
31 – smallest of all – too bland in my opinion and size seems not worth the effort for market
Thank you for putting together this exploration and really enjoyed the descriptions you put together.
Hi Greg, we really enjoyed this adventure box! My notes are below.
(Question: what type of marker do you use to mark the fruit? I’m looking for a way to label the fruits from my own trees. Thanks!)
Jan Boyce
* Creamy and sweet, almost fruit-like sweetness
* Very good flavor
* Skin turned partially black (should remain green when ripe), was thin and hard to scoop fruit out of; might have been better off peeling it
* Small pit
Edranol
* Skin stayed green when ripe; peels very easily
* Reminds me a lot of fuerte in flavor
* Mild, a little watery; also similar to reed
* Good for eating, not guac
* Flavor pretty good, but would not seek it out
29
* Necky shape, small pit, very much like Pinkerton
* Skin stayed green when ripe; very fragile and difficult to peel
* Good flavor for eating, but probably not suitable for guacamole; somewhat watery texture like Reed, but bolder flavor
* Sweet like Jan Boyce, watery like Edranol; would be good on toast
30
* Stayed green when ripe
* A little difficult to peel
* Large pit
* Very smooth and buttery texture/flavor, not as nutty as Hass but similar in flavor
31
* Stayed partially green when ripe
* Very small fruit
* Difficult to peel/scoop
* Really good flavor, buttery and smooth
Tami
* Large fruit with reddish peel
* Seed coat adhered to flesh
* Very hard to peel or scoop; peel comes apart and leaves bits stuck to flesh
* Mild flavor, slightly watery texture
Sharwil
* Turned black when ripe
* Thick skin, very easy to scoop
* Really rich, buttery flavor, super tasty
* Almost tastes like bacon (the meat, not the avocado variety)
* Smooth and creamy texture
* “Like eating butter, but in a good way”
* Instant favorite!